“In our discussions with him, he has a really good feel for skate parks in general. He has a good rapport with the skating community, and he also is a good communicator with non-skaters,” Saldutti said.

“He’s got a keen eye, he understands the nuances of skate parks, so we’d like to move forward and engage Jesse as our designer,” he said.

Clayton has proposed a three-phase plan for $7,500 under which he would do a full evaluation of the Fourth Street site, create a conceptual plan that will be discussed and vetted in public, and then use feedback from those public talks to develop a revised plan. That revised plan would then be used by a later engineering consultant to develop construction-ready specifications that could be used for the project to be bid out, Saldutti said.

“The expectation is that he is going to develop a design that’s going to be acceptable to the community, to the user group, and fit the site,” Saldutti said.

Once the design for the skate park itself is finalized, Saldutti said, borough officials picture an engineering and landscaping consultant being brought on board to help develop the features outside the skating footprint, such as lighting, landscape buffering, other structures like water fountains or shade coverings, and stormwater management features.

“He knows his stuff enough that he can help us come up with a park that, as many people as we can please will be pleased, knowing that you’ll never please 100 percent of the people,” said committee chairwoman Mary Fuller.

“Once the majority feel that’s the end product that we want, then we’ll look at the builders, and come up with specifications to go on to the next phase,” she said.

Skateboarder Justin Mondschein attended the Parks committee meeting and said he recommended Clayton highly, having been to skate parks he designed up and down the east coast.

“His parks are great. He did Ambler, that’s a good example of a good skate park he’s done, and he had attended one of your meetings earlier. I think it’s a good choice to go with Jesse,” said Mondschein.

“That would be for the landscaping, stormwater management, all of the things that would go into this particular project other than just the skating surface itself,” he said.

Councilman Jason Van Dame asked about the status of bores meant to evaluate the soil below the skate park site, and Saldutti said staff are still evaluating how much boring needs to be done.

If the current tentative timeline holds, Saldutti said, the public feedback can be gathered and design refined through the fall, with bids and construction possible early in 2018.

“We’re hoping, by this time next year, people will be skating,” he said.

Lansdale Borough Council next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 16 and the parks and recreation committee next meets at 8 p.m. on Sept. 6, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine St. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.Lansdale.org or follow @LansdalePA on Twitter.